Trespasses
Author: Louise Kennedy
First Published: April 14, 2022 (UK)
Publisher: Riverhead Books (US)
ISBN: 9780593540893
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
Loved the story, didn’t love the characters but the main protagonist was charming in her own way.
Re-readability: 🌟🌟
Would probably reread it way further in the future, but not immediately.
Pair with: A book club. Or a friend. And an Irish coffee or Bailey’s hot chocolate. Or just some strong Irish breakfast tea.
I sped-read this as I had forgotten it was book club day, so I drank some extra strong Irish breakfast tea whilst reading.
Trigger Warnings: adultery, violence, war, alcoholism. Slightly moderate trigger warnings for murder, death, and police brutality
Disclaimer: This post will include affiliate links to Apple Books & Indiebound (below). Also, light spoilers below.
“Trespasses” was my book club’s pick for the month, and I’m so glad because I otherwise definitely wouldn’t have heard of, and therefore wouldn’t have picked up the book. It was a fantastic read, and while I sped-read it (so it’s definitely doable), I highly do not recommend speed reading through this as I definitely missed some details toward the end (as evidenced during our club’s discussion). It’s an interesting read with passionate characters making questionable decisions (causing me to have many reactions). However, I also highly recommend reading up on The Troubles before or while reading this book, especially if you’re not well-versed in Irish history.
“Trespasses” follows 24-year-old Cushla, an Irish Catholic elementary school teacher who also works part-time at her family’s bar, living in a small, quiet, and predominantly Protestant town near Belfast. She starts an affair with an older and married Protestant – and tries to balance her relationship with her everyday life, while living through the height of The Troubles.
I had many reactions whilst reading this book. (A fellow member saw the tabs in my book and was like WOAH.) I really wanted to like Cushla – she obviously cared about her students (the cutest seven-year-olds who unfortunately had terms like “rubber bullet” and bombs in their everyday language) and tried her best at home… but I just can’t respect anybody who willingly gets into an affair with a married man, even if I understand why she did it. Plus, the man in question was literally her dead dad’s friend. Like, I’m sorry, what? I’m pretty sure my favorite character was Davy, mainly because he was seven years old and still so innocent, even though he was super underprivileged and surrounded by violence.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading “Trespasses”. It’s definitely a bit of an emotional and heavy read, but it was just so riveting. The lack of quotation marks annoyed me a bit, but it wasn’t super distracting. However, you 100% definitely need a refresher on Irish history, or a Troubles 101 whilst reading this book. Readers need to understand the tensions between the Catholics and the Protestants, and how regular (and almost routine) the violence was to understand how extraordinary some of these characters’ choices were.
I highly recommend reading this book, especially if you’re into Irish culture and historical fiction. I also recommend it if you’re looking for a group read, as it made for a great discussion. And it’s also great for talking about privilege, morals, beliefs, and values as Cushla makes choices that are definitely questionable and should be against her beliefs, but she makes them anyway. Same with Michael – he shouldn’t be defending young Catholic teens as a Protestant, but he does anyway.
I’m also known to re-read books, but I’m not sure if I’d re-read this book – or at least I wouldn’t any time soon. If my Irish friends wanted to read it, I’d definitely re-read it with them, but I probably wouldn’t pick this up to re-read just for fun.
Check out “Trespasses” below:
Storygraph | Goodreads | Penguin Random House | IndieBound | Bookshop | Apple Books | NYPL (or your local library)
Note: I’m officially an IndieBound & Apple Books affiliate, which is awesome because they’re both services I use! I promise this didn’t influence my review at all. This just helps me make a little extra money to buy more books that I’ll read… eventually.
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